2005 Book prize winner

Book prize winner

The Likes of Us: A Biography of the White Working Class

Michael Collins

Published by: Granta

Once they were portrayed as the salt of the earth. Nowadays, they take to the streets when paedophiles and asylum seekers are in their midst; they expose their lives in TV documentaries; they love Gucci and hate the Euro – the broadsheets cast them as xenophobes and exhibitionists and mock their tastes and attitudes. Who are the white working class and what have they done to deserve this portrayal? The Likes of Us is a fascinating and wholly original examination of London’s white working class.